Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Pei Chuzhi didn’t need to look to guess how much foul miasma was spreading under her Weibo.

Tong Yang beside her sensed the seriousness of the situation, so she didn’t ask what exactly had happened. Instead, she took out her phone and searched on her own. When she raised her eyes again, she looked somewhat sympathetic: “These are all fake, right?”

Pei Chuzhi didn’t know how to reply for a moment; that piece of exposé had truths and falsehoods.

It was true that her family really owed debts; what was false was being arrogant and domineering and refusing to repay them.

“Don’t take it too much to heart,” at a critical moment Tong Yang showed a little-adult demeanor, “I’ve been slandered countless times since I was little. After a long time, you just get used to it.”

Pei Chuzhi heard the comfort in her words and reluctantly pulled out a faint smile: “Thank you.”

Tong Yang smiled sweetly, turned her head to look at the screen in the lounge, and left her space to sort out her emotions.

The online clamor would not stop because of the lounge’s silence.

Almost as if it were only natural, self-righteous netizens swept through Pei Chuzhi’s side, then conveniently set their anger on Xing Ye.

They mocked him for having no eye for people and scolded him for not distinguishing right from wrong.

Xing Ye’s fans had been on a roller coaster these past two days. They had originally planned to accept reality, but who knew such a twist would appear midway.

Nowadays, girls who chase stars have a habit: they think they see farther and think deeper than the artists and their teams. Once Pei Chuzhi’s matter came out, they immediately thought that if Xing Ye got together with her, he would definitely be dragged down in the future.

So regardless of their previous attitudes, everyone immediately formed a united front, vowing to make Xing Ye and Pei Chuzhi have nothing to do with each other from now on.

【Check out tonight’s International Film Festival red carpet styling—what an amazing man.】

【awsl! Look at brother’s brow bone, look at brother’s Adam’s apple! Wildfire come quickly, focus on our own and ignore others!】

【#XingYeInternationalFilmFestival#, spam this to purify the square.】

It had to be said, Xing Ye’s fan count was indeed astonishing.

They usually didn’t like playing the traffic-idol comment-control game, but once they really started, numbers alone were enough to intimidate.

When many poorly informed netizens wanted to watch the excitement again, searching Xing Ye’s name mostly brought up photos of him attending the International Film Festival in Shen City tonight.

But Pei Chuzhi’s treatment was clearly much worse.

Most of the fans she gained from her looks and variety shows were casual passerby fans, insignificant among the overwhelming crowd of gossip-eaters.

【The exposer must definitely be Xing Ye’s fan, right? Seeing the trend go wrong, directly strangled hope in the cradle.】

【Hahaha serves her right! I’ve disliked her for a long time—how many female celebrities who rise by scandals are any good?】

【Whether it’s a real relationship or fake scandal, if I were Xing Ye, I’d absolutely want to shake her off now—best never have any connection again for life.】

As for those rational voices saying “wait for Pei Chuzhi to respond first,” they were faint and drowned in the tide of people who enjoyed watching the drama.

Pei Chuzhi couldn’t help feeling a bit fortunate.

Luckily she was voted out early today; otherwise if she learned the news suddenly, she probably wouldn’t have been able to fully devote herself to the variety show. Even so, during the review segment, all the artists present could see her state was off.

On the way back to the hotel, Xie Yiqian deliberately sat beside her and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, it’s just people scolding online,” Pei Chuzhi still wore a smile, only her hollow eyes betraying the unease inside, “they won’t come to the hotel to scold me face to face.”

Xie Yiqian frowned tightly: “If you need it, you can talk with me.”

Pei Chuzhi nodded: “Okay.”

However, after returning to the hotel, she closed her door alone and didn’t go to find anyone.

Qiao Na called, asking whether she needed her help to clarify things online.

Pei Chuzhi remembered that the company was discussing a crisis public-relations plan overnight, so she could only tell her not to take action for the time being.

“Baby, don’t worry too much. If your conduct is upright, you need not fear a crooked shadow. I know better than anyone what kind of person you are.”

Qiao Na felt that exposé was too absurd; her comforting tone was full of confidence, “Sooner or later those blind fools will see the truth!”

Pei Chuzhi responded vaguely a few times and hung up the phone.

The room lights weren’t on; the night was deep and quiet.

All around seemed to be countless swamps, pulling her down bit by bit.

Pei Chuzhi’s eyes felt somewhat sore, and she thought she should perhaps notify her parents.

However, before she dialed the home number, a WeChat notification appeared on the screen.

Her breathing stalled; she rubbed her eyes and saw the other party’s name clearly.

Xing Ye: 【What’s going on?】

Just four simple characters, his tone impossible to guess.

But Pei Chuzhi thought about it—if today she were standing in Xing Ye’s position, she would probably feel very angry.

To put it more harshly, Xing Ye stirring CP with her really was precision poverty alleviation.

But right when it was the final kick before the goal, this poverty-alleviation target actually stirred up negative rumors—simply a true portrayal of “accomplishing nothing, yet ruining things.”

So she propped herself up and slowly typed: 【Sorry, I didn’t expect such an accident.】

Xing Ye replied with a long string of ellipses, seeming extremely speechless.

Pei Chuzhi felt her whole heart pressed into bone-chilling icy water by that reply.

Cracked lines traveled along the blood vessels wrapping her heart, spreading inch by inch through her body, making even her fingertips gradually frost over.

Actually, just like Qiao Na said, rumors would eventually be clarified one day.

But Pei Chuzhi couldn’t understand why, just thinking that Xing Ye might misunderstand her and dislike her, the discomfort in her heart exceeded all the previous shocks.

“Xing Ye…”

She parted her lips and softly called his name, as if by doing so, just like he had promised, she wouldn’t need to fear anything.

The person on the other end of the phone seemed to hear her call.

Just as the long-untouched phone was about to black out, Xing Ye’s next message finally appeared on the screen.

【I didn’t make myself clear. You don’t need to apologize to anyone. I just want to know what happened in your past.】

Pei Chuzhi froze for a moment; fresh air suddenly flooded into her lungs.

She was like a person about to drown, seeing an arm reaching toward her, yet suspecting it was only her illusion.

She asked: 【If I tell you, will you believe me?】

Xing Ye: 【As long as you say it, I’ll believe.】

Pei Chuzhi’s past, when told, wasn’t complicated.

Up to now, more than half of her life could be considered enviable.

Her parents were loving, her family well-off. When other children were still imagining going to amusement parks on weekends, she was already flying abroad every summer vacation to visit Disney.

She still remembered, when she was five, her father held her with one hand and her mother with the other, leading them into a garden as beautiful as a fairy-tale scene.

There were her mother’s favorite flowers there, and also a big house with a pointed roof.

Her father bent down and asked her: “Zhizhi, do you like it here?”

“Of course I like it!” five-year-old Pei Chuzhi answered crisply.

Her father and mother exchanged a glance and smiled: “Then from now on, this will be Zhizhi’s home.”

From then on, every classmate who came to her house would sigh, saying her home was as big as a castle, and she was the carefree princess living inside.

Pei Chuzhi’s carefree life came to an abrupt halt in her sophomore year.

Actually, looking back afterward, signs of the dream shattering had faintly appeared a year or two earlier.

But at that time she didn’t understand; she only felt that every time she returned home, she would see the wrinkles on her parents’ foreheads deepen a little more.

Investment failure, cash flow problems, factory shutdown, company collapse.

They had no choice but to move out of the big garden, sell all the assets they could sell, and the family of three moved into a two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment, spreading out account books to calculate how much money they still hadn’t repaid.

Pei Chuzhi had never told anyone in detail about her family’s story.

She always felt that although material conditions were far worse than before, as long as her family was still there, there was no hardship they couldn’t overcome.

Moreover, everyone’s life has unsatisfactory parts, so she didn’t need to talk about her own troubles and annoy others.

But perhaps because Xing Ye was not standing in front of her at this moment, she was actually able to narrate the facts exactly as they were.

【Now my parents are working at other companies, and I can earn money too. The debts actually aren’t much left.】

【I don’t know why someone would spread rumors, but I want to tell you—we didn’t refuse to repay debts, and I didn’t bully people at school by relying on power.】

【And I didn’t… casually date boyfriends.】

After sending the last sentence, Pei Chuzhi pressed her lips together.

It felt a bit unnecessary?

Just as she was about to withdraw the clarification about boyfriends, Xing Ye replied: 【Okay, I know.】

The Shen City Grand Theater was brightly lit, the hall glittering with starlight.

The annual International Film Festival closing ceremony was being held here.

On stage, the Emerging Director of the Year award was being presented. Xing Ye symbolically clapped, then lowered his eyes to look at his phone screen.

He wore a custom-made suit tonight, and the platinum cufflinks at his wrist flashed with a cool sheen.

Song Shiqing, sitting in the last few rows, sent a message: 【I just discussed it with the PR department. Tomorrow’s official announcement is canceled. From now on, you must draw a clear line from her.】

Seeing he didn’t reply, Song Shiqing added: 【Agreeing earlier to let you hype with her was my work mistake. But you don’t have solid black spots on you. It’s still not too late to stop the loss. No need to fall from the altar for one round of hype. Understand?】

Xing Ye smiled coldly: 【You look especially like the dean of discipline right now. It’s fine—I asked her. They’re all just rumors.】

Song Shiqing: 【How much do you know about her? How can you be sure she won’t lie to you?】

Xing Ye frowned, feeling that Song Shiqing’s overly rigorous habit probably wouldn’t be cured in a lifetime.

He replied leisurely: 【Then let her lie. I’m willing.】

Song Shiqing only hated that this was a formal occasion and he couldn’t rush to the front row to grab Xing Ye’s collar and scold him: 【Even if you really like her, listen to my advice—don’t act impulsively.】

In the span of a few messages, the presenters on stage had already changed.

“Next, we announce the Best Breakthrough of the Year.”

The presenter held the envelope, introducing softly into the microphone, “I believe everyone knows the Best Breakthrough award was established to commend artists who, in the past year’s works, bravely broke constraints and challenged themselves…”

On the big screen, photos of five nominees appeared in sequence, and the cameras also focused on the five artists scattered around the venue.

Xing Ye raised his head and smiled at the nearby camera with the red light.

After the camera aimed back at the presenter, he lowered his gaze again to the chat interface in his hand.

His long, well-proportioned fingers typed a line: 【The girl I like is being bullied, and you tell me to swallow my anger. Song Shiqing, is this your first day knowing me? Don’t you know what kind of person I am?】

The presenter’s voice rang out: “The winner is—Xing Ye!”

Magnificent music spread through every corner of the theater in an instant. A spotlight followed Xing Ye’s tall, upright figure, escorting him through waves of applause to the center of the stage.

Xing Ye took the trophy from the presenter, adjusted the microphone higher with one hand, his voice low and calm: “Thank you to the organizing committee for the recognition, and thanks to all the staff of the film team.”

A routine acceptance speech suddenly shifted tone after a brief pause.

“Additionally, I want to thank someone especially important in my life here.”

A faint, gentle look flashed across Xing Ye’s sharp brows and eyes. Then he raised his gaze, sweeping over the surprised artists, media, and audience below the stage:

“Thank you, Pei Chuzhi. Without you, there wouldn’t be the me of today.”

Moments later, the entire internet erupted.

Author’s Note: Song Shiqing: Don’t make the official announcement tomorrow!

Brother Ye: OK, then I’ll announce today.

Thanks to the little angels who cast overlord tickets or irrigated nutrient solution for me during 2019-12-14 21:03:21~2019-12-15 20:58:12~

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: Mí Dù 4 bottles; Hei Mei, Bobo’s Little Fairy, Tai Xisi 2 bottles; Hahahahaha Husky, Qing Xiao, Lianyi 1 bottle;

Thank you very much for everyone’s support, I will continue to work hard!